Off to the farm to make your own fresh cheeses

A short while ago I went to Owens Farm in Hopkinton NH, (www.owenfarm.org) for a cheese making class arranged through the Concord Co-Operative. On a recent Saturday morning together with three girlfriends I drove to Hopkinton to Ruth and Derek Owen’s Farm. Together with six other ladies, we spent several fun hours making homemade mozzarella:  from the beginning of heating the fresh Owen Farm cow’s milk; through to cutting and separating the curds; draining off the whey; working the cheese to make it stretchy like store bought whole mozzarella; and then tasting and bringing home a sample. We also got to tour the farm and feed a newborn lamb; see their flock of hens; visit two absolutely enormous sows and five horses – all on a beautifully sunny day. Owen Farm also has educational tours for schools and a ‘farm camp’ during the summer.
Apart from just having to keep nibbling on whole milk mozzarella (none of this skimmed milk stuff), I made the rest of the mozzarella into the salad recipe below:  my regular tomato Bruschetta recipe with cubes of the mozzarella and salad shrimp added. My husband, who says he doesn’t care for whole mozzarella, devoured this salad.

I could have then taken the leftover whey from the cheese making and made fresh Ricotta cheese. Unfortunately, fresh Ricotta needs to be made within three hours of producing the whey and this was a ladies day out, so I wouldn’t have been home early enough to make the ricotta.

Ruth showed us how she made homemade butter from cream rich milk from her own cows. (I did go on Instructables.com to get directions for making homemade butter, but ran out of time to be able to experiment and share this with you.) I was lucky, Ruth knew I was making Irish Soda Bread for a class, so I got the buttermilk fresh from making the butter. Originally buttermilk was the liquid left over from making butter and was used for baking as well as drinking. Buttermilk today in the stores is made from a ‘culture’ added to regular milk to make buttermilk. There are a few dairies in New England that still produce ‘real’ buttermilk and some farms still sell ‘real’ buttermilk.

With two friends, I’ll take a daylong cheese making class at New England Cheese Supply in Western Mass in April, as well as a weekend cheese making class in Vermont, also in April. I want to be able to make fresh mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, fromage frais, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, feta, queso fresco and queso blanco. I’m only going for the cheeses easily and quickly made at home with no special equipment. But imagine the taste of fresh cheese! Not only is it fun to make your own cheese, but you can control exactly what goes into it. Add herbs grown in your garden, picked and used within minutes. The flavor is indescribable. Fresh artisan cheese is becoming more common at Farmer’s Markets. Then make yourself a loaf of real bread and it’s a match made in Heaven.
Bread and cheese making resources
Owen Farm in Hopkinton NH:  www.owenfarm.org
The Instructables for Bread making and lots of other do it yourself information:  www.instructables.com
King Arthur Flour in Vermont offers a variety of baking classes and baking supplies: www.kingarthurflour.com
The cookbook ‘Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day’ truly shows you how to easily make real yeast bread, even for beginners:  www.artisanbreadinfive.com
Vermont Cheese festival, Sunday July 25 at Shelburne Farms, which looks like a lot of fun. It includes beer and hard cider:  www.vtcheesefest.com
Become a Locavore!

With all the scares in recent years about food safety and contamination, more and more people are turning to the ‘Locavore’ movement. This really means buying fruit and vegetables and in some areas cheese, milk, meats etc., from farms within 50 miles of your home. The thinking is that you will know where these foods come from and have far more faith that these local farmers are more concerned with producing good food grown without added chemicals etc. Of course, fruits here are then picked when ripe, are seasonal and succulent instead of coming from South America and elsewhere where they are normally picked green.

The easiest way of enjoying these bounties of the earth is at the rapidly increasing numbers of Farmers Markets that appear in New England from about May to October, as well as indoor winter Farmer’s Markets. ‘New Hampshire’s Farmers’ Markets’ offer the colorful and tasty bounty of local farms and gardens all season long. Enjoy the friendly, open-air market atmosphere while shopping for fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, locally prepared foods and specialty items. There are many convenient Farmers’ Markets located throughout the state. For variety, quality, value, and the chance to chat with local farmers, visit a local farmer’s market.

Local Market resources
New Hampshire Farmers’ Market:  www.nhfma.org/2009-market-list.htm (At this time this is reflecting 2009 info)
Farmers markets on the seacoast:  www.seacoastgrowers.org/
Winter farmers markets on the seacoast:  www.seacoasteatlocal.org/winterfarmersmarkets/index.html
Farmers markets in Mass:  www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/farmers_markets (At this time this page is active)
Winter Farmer’s Markets in Mass:  www.massfarmersmarkets.org/

Many of the sites will put you on an email list to update you about local markets. Yes, the prices of meat, vegetables, and cheeses are higher, but the quality is normally significantly higher than most supermarkets, is seasonal, and frequently organic. Try the European route of meat only being used as a flavoring, which allows more money for really fresh fruit and vegetables. You might actually get the children to prefer fruit and vegetables to junk food. I go to Lexington Farmers Market on a Tuesday afternoon in the summer when I can. In Southern NH, there are Amherst, Bedford, Manchester, Milford, Merrimack, and Nashua Farmers Markets to name a few. The rest of the year when I’m doing a ‘foodie’ Saturday with students who have become friends, we like to see if we can arrange our day to shop at Wilson’s Farm in Lexington. This is the same Wilson’s as the Wilson’s Farm in Litchfield, NH but it’s huge. The produce is always fresh and can last longer in your fridge. I always like to indulge and buy a chunk of cheese and a loaf of ‘Iggy’ bread:  real, chewy artisan bread. We’ve even visited the ‘Iggy’ bakery in Boston and bought bread there.

Community Supported Agriculture

In addition to Farmer’s Markets, there is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). See www.localharvest.org/csa for a detailed explanation. Click on ‘Farms’ and enter your state. There were 32 pages of CSA Farms listed for NH, and 54 pages for Massachusetts. Many also sell at Farmers Markets so you don’t have to choose one particular farm.    

Community Supported Agriculture has grown rapidly as a way for people to have fresh fruit and vegetables through many months of the year from a local farm, frequently organic. You pay the farm at the beginning of the planting season (now) and until about October/November you get a box of fresh seasonal produce each week.

Go to www.sienafarms.com for an explanation of how CSA works. Siena Farms supplies many top restaurants in Boston with fresh produce as well as at the Copley Square Farmers Market each week.
This farm in Sudbury MA, is owned and operated by the husband of the owner (Anna Sortun) of Oleana and Café Sofra in Boston – Middle Eastern Inspired Cuisine. Café Sofra now has Sunday night cooking classes.

Chef Oonagh Williams is an award winning British Chef/Instructor based in Merrimack, NH with a gluten and lactose intolerant adult son. Chef Oonagh has always cooked from scratch with all real ingredients so cooking gluten free meals is not a problem. Chef Oonagh focuses on gluten free baked goods that have to replicate the taste of her regular flour baked goods, since muffins, bread, pizza, cakes etc made from wheat are what people miss the most. 

Visit Chef Oonagh’s web site www.RoyalTemptations.com for recent gluten free recipes and watch for her appearances on WMUR’s Cooks Corner, with links to YouTube. Chef Oonagh teaches gluten free baking classes, offers months worth of baked goods, gives presentations, and provides a consultancy service to help ease the transition to gluten free living.

For more articles visit the Applaud Women Library.